There are gestures, and then there are kneelings.
This week in Washington, María Corina Machado , the longtime face of the Venezuelan resistance to its authoritarian government, walked into the Oval Office and placed her Nobel Peace Prize medal into Donald Trump’s hands like a medieval supplicant offering tribute to a monarch. Around the world, normal people shuddered.
Coming less than two weeks after U.S. troops swooped into Caracas to extract dictator Nicolas Maduro, she called it “a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.” Closer to the truth. It was an offering. A tribute. A payoff.
Trump beamed, posted it on social media, and accepted the offering like a man receiving what he believes is rightfully his. “Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” he posted on his Truth Social platform. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect,”
Symbolic or not, it was a moment of such jaw-dropping political self-humiliation that even hardened Miami operatives winced into their cafecitos.
Because while Machado was bending the knee to gift the medal POTUS coveted, Trump has been gifting something else to Venezuelans: deportation orders.
Read related: U.S. bombs Venezuela, snatches Nicolas Maduro — and calls it a drug bust
He canceled TPS protections. He deported Venezuelans to CECOT — the Salvadoran mega-prison so notorious that human rights groups call it a concrete graveyard. He declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela in a fit of imperial cosplay. He has openly said Machado lacks “respect within her own country.” And he is now happily negotiating with Delcy Rodríguez — Maduro’s former right hand — while Machado waits outside the palace gates hoping for crumbs. She can’t even show her face 
publicly in Venezuela without the fear of being arrested for treason, conspiracy, and other crimes. Machado was in living in hiding before she evaded military checkpoints and escaped to receive the Nobel Peace Prize late last year. The Venezuelan government still considers her a fugitive for alleged anti-government plots and supporting foreign actions against the regime.
Yet there Machado was, handing Trump her prize. What did she get in return? Besides a diminished profile? A White House swag bag, which is standard for visitors and often includes assorted memorabilia, such as presidential pins, pens, a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap embroidered with Trump’s signature, a White House keychain, a mock $100 bill bearing Trump’s image, an “I Was There” pin — maybe a Trump resort towel and a bottle from his Virginia vineyard, where the Trump Organization recently sought approval to hire 36 foreign workers, mostly from Mexico and Honduras, at a pay rate nearly $2 an hour below what it offered months ago, after the Trump Administration lowered minimum wages for some temporary farmworkers.
My South American friends have a word for what she became that very moment in the White House on Thursday: una vasalla. A vassal. A loyal subject. Someone who believes devotion will earn favor from a king who has already made clear he doesn’t need her.
And here’s the real tragedy: the regime she wants removed is still firmly in place. Former VP Delcy Rodríguez runs the government. The military remains steadfastly loyal. The security apparatus remains intact. Oil is flowing again — this time under U.S. supervision — and the new business class of “transition” officials is already forming. The revolution did not fall. It simply changed its international partner.
Meanwhile, Venezuelans in Doral and Weston still check their mailboxes nervously, wondering if the next letter is a deportation notice. Their relatives back home still whisper instead of speak freely. Their country remains a chessboard. Only the players changed seats.
Read related: Oil, power, and a forgotten election: Miami Republicans pivot on Venezuela
Machado told cheering supporters outside the White House gates. “We can count on President Trump.”
But can they?
The Trump Administration has sidelined the rightful president, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, photographed here with Machado when they were honored by the European Parliament in 2024.There is no timeline for democratic transition. No plan for institutional rebuilding. Just a photo op, a framed medal, and Trump’s latest social media trophy.
In return, Machado gave away the one symbol that was entirely hers — earned through years of resistance, exile, and risk — and placed it in the hands of a man who has already sidelined her.
Nevermind that it completely undermines the whole process and takes a swipe at the Nobel committee.
It’s no wonder Norwegian lawmakers reacted with utter dismay over Machado’s gift, especially since it comes even as Trump’s threats of a US takeover of Greenland – a semiautonomous Arctic island and territory of the Kingdom of Denmark – continue to ramp up. Peace, indeed.
“The awarding of the prize is now so politicized and potentially dangerous that it could easily legitimize an anti-peace prize development,” Raymond Johansen, a former mayor of Oslo, said in a social media post, calling the move “unbelievably embarrassing and damaging.”
It was also painful to watch. Not because hope is wrong. But because hope should never require surrendering your dignity at the feet of someone who does not respect you.
Back in Caracas, the regime remains. Back in Miami, deportation lawyers stay busy. Back in Washington, the king admires his new medal.
And somewhere in between, a nation still waits for real freedom — not symbolic gifts to powerful men.
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” What kind of person would actually accept an award like this? An award earned by someone else?”
You would be surprised how many Cubans in Miami claim to have been Navy SEALS or Green Berets yet they never even served and MANY do not even speak English so no wonder Trump carried the Cuban vote .
What kind of person would actually accept an award like this? An award earned by someone else?
Trump is mentally ill. Did Trump actually keep the ladies Peace Prize? What a creep…
Red fox ,
Iraq was not about oil , it was to remove Saddam and yes he was removed on a WMD lie but BEFORE the invasion USA , UK knew he did not have WMD but pushed the lie .
He had nerve gas in some artillery shells but that was not what we meant by WMD and nerve gas in shells is of no danger to us .
I agree with rest of your other post and another lie was Osama had Qaeda in Iraq but that was the ultimate lie as Saddam and Osama hated each other plus Saddam secret police made sure no groups in Iraq that could be a threat to Saddam .
Bush lied to us all .
On the other hand his father did not and knew better .
Maria Luisa Castellanos , Jaime Pemo , Estela Leevia all 3 hit home runs so no need for me to add my 2 cents and a shame as thought more of Machado then this .
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” Wow… Your bias against President Trump is borderline surreal. Talking about a severe case of TDS, yours is like Stage 4. I feel sorry for you, I really do.”
Trump is an insecure , scared child . As far removed from a Man as one can be .
You rather not see this so be it and he lies as much as Fidel did .
The Nobel Peace Prize had respect. María Corina Machado giving away her prize is insulting. Bowing down to Trump never sends well. Machado will never recover from this mistake.
I can only imagine there are two factors at work here, each one’s influence unknown: 1) she wants to ingratiate herself with the occupant of the White House; 2) she bowed – as you said – to crushing pressure to give the boy what he wants. A normal, non-egomaniacal, non-narcissistic person would never make a request for something like this, even indirectly. And, even if/when presented with something like this unsolicited, a normal person would politely turn it down. But the current occupant of the White House is not such a person – not by a long shot. So, the toddler must be given what he wants, in order to prevent a tantrum.
This is such a tyranical gesture on her part. Now I trully believe she is not suited to lead her country.
What a joke of a lady this person Machado is. He gave her a swag bag like a common petitioner beggar to kind Trump’s. Court. Great article written. And the TDS is strong the most on those that have fled dictatorships to then year for it again here in the usa and in Latin America again. Iraq 2.0. After we murdered 2 million Iraqi civilians, stole oil, helped create ISIS we left a country worst off than it was. Those are 2 million Iraqi Muslims that we killed, humans we killed for oil and weapons that never exsisted
Evan Jeffery S,
Yes, TDS, Trump Derangement Syndrome is very real.
It’s a condition affecting Trump supporters who are blindly loyal, regardless of Trump’s many lies, his pardoning of criminals like the ex-president of Honduras (who was convicted of drug trafficking), his threatened takeover of Greenland, his tariffs that have alienated allies and driven up inflation, his instigation of an insurrection and so much more.
She is absolutely disgusting. How can she lead a nation when she bows to Trump. The Nobel Committee clearly told her that he Nobel Prize was non-transferable and she gave it to him anyway.
As much as I would like a new leader in Venezuela, it is clear that she is not worthy of that position!
Hope she didn’t ruin Trump’s chance to win his own Nobel Peace Prize this year. Peace through strength!
No one should be surprised that the Monroe Doctrine reaches both south to Venezuela and north to Greenland. After all, Secretary of State Seward bought Alaska in 1867.
Wow… Your bias against President Trump is borderline surreal. Talking about a severe case of TDS, yours is like Stage 4. I feel sorry for you, I really do.